


Tell Me Stories About The Stars

by ashtraythief



Series: tumblr prompt fills [2]
Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dystopia, M/M, Painting, Stargazing, Storytelling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-15
Updated: 2016-11-15
Packaged: 2018-08-31 06:06:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8566813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashtraythief/pseuds/ashtraythief
Summary: Jared and Jensen are only two rooftops, yet worlds apart, but the stars tell them the same stories.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the 75 dates meme, for the prompt stargazing. Dear nonnie, this is probably not what you imagined, but my muse did. Especially after ladyalycat planted the idea of an Underworld-esque dystopian rooftop opening. I hope you’ll still enjoy it! Many thanks to ilicaikalie for betaing!

  


The air on top of the building is clean and cold. The city’s noises are a distant rumble, stories below Jared. No one, except for him, comes up here. The high-rise was one of many abandoned when people moved underground to escape air pollution. It’s gotten better now. People have been able to move back up to the surface since a couple of years ago, but many of the buildings are inhospitable after decades of disuse. The government hasn’t gotten around to tearing all of them down yet.

 

Jared’s glad for it, glad for the abandoned, overgrown garden he found up here that allows him to grow fruits and vegetables. It’s not much, but it’s enough for him to feed himself and sell the rest.

 

He looks over to the C-building. He’s never seen it from anywhere other than up here, because it’s located behind the wall, in the government district. A street rat like Jared could never enter.

 

The rooftop is empty, so he busies himself with his garden. He prunes the tomatoes, rips out the ever-growing weeds, and collects eggplants and cabbage.

 

When he’s done, the sun has finally set. Jared checks the C-building’s roof again, and there’s Jensen, standing at the edge and looking at him. He waves, a short, brief movement.

 

Jared raises his hand back in greeting and walks to the edge of his building. They’re not close enough to talk, not even close enough to see each other well. Jared pulls out the field glasses he fished out of the trash and Jensen gets out his own, the model much sleeker and fancier, government-issued standard.

 

They focus their glasses and then they grin at each other. Jensen holds up his portable whiteboard.

 

 _How are the tomatoes coming?_ it reads.

 

 _Good_ , Jared writes back. _Needed to cut the leaves so the tomatoes get more sun_.

 

Jared doesn’t have a whiteboard of course, but he’d found an old school chalkboard. He broke it apart with the help of a crowbar and now uses a piece to write on.

 

In the beginning, they hadn’t talked. The first time Jared had seen Jensen, he’d watched, frozen and enchanted by the sight of another person out on a roof. The boy was beautiful. He looked about Jared’s age, seventeen, maybe eighteen. His dark blond hair was cut in the standard government style — short at the sides, longer on top, unlike Jared’s long shaggy strands. His big eyes were a bright green and his lips so full and pink Jared had no trouble imagining kissing them.

 

Jared had hidden until one day when he’d thought himself alone, only to turn and find the other boy watching him. Jared had been ready to run when the other boy had waved.

 

It had only taken Jensen until the next day to figure out a mode of communication.

 

 _I love tomatoes_ , Jensen has written back. _Especially the yellow ones._

 

Yellow tomatoes? Jared wonders what fuckery the government has done to the poor tomatoes. Isn’t it enough to mess with people?

 

_Only red tomatoes here._

 

Jared really hates the limits to their conversation. He just wishes they could _talk_.

 

 _What are you drawing tonight?_ he asks before Jensen can write more inane questions about Jared’s vegetables.

 

_Draco. It’s big, going to take a while._

 

 _I have lots to do_ , Jared answers. It’s a lie, but whenever Jensen paints and Jared watches the blanket of stars stretching across the endless sky, he feels good. Peaceful. Almost safe.

 

On the other roof, Jensen nods and smiles. Then he pulls the protective tarp from his easel. Jared goes back to gardening, but he stops from time to time to watch Jensen.

 

As always, Jensen is deeply engrossed in his painting. There’s a lamp next to his easel and he paints with concentration, gnawing on his lower lip, wiping his brush on his shirt, dragging paint-smeared fingers through his hair.

 

Jared wants to know how the paint tastes on Jensen’s skin.

 

It really takes longer tonight. Sometimes Jensen only paints for an hour. The rest of the night, he talks to Jared. Tonight, he paints for three hours. Jared doesn’t mind because he loves seeing Jensen’s work.

 

When Jensen is done, he waves with an empty canvas to get Jared’s attention. Jared settles on the roof’s balustrade.

 

Jensen holds up a sign, on which he drew the star constellation. Jared looks up into the sky. It’s a clear night and he has no problem making out Draco. He didn’t know any constellations before he met Jensen. Now he knows twenty-four. One for every time he’s watched Jensen paint.

 

Draco winds around the little bear, a long curved line like a snake’s body, the neck sharply angled down, ending in a four star rectangular head.

 

Jared looks back to Jensen.

 

 _What do you see?_ the sign says.

 

It had taken Jared a few nights to understand what Jensen meant. Now, he doesn’t have to think. He just looks back up at the sky and lets his imagination run wild. He draws on the stories his mother told him as a child, on veterans’ horrific accounts of the war. He remembers the fear he felt the last time he ran from the Security, the elation when they didn’t dare follow him into the library's ruin.

 

After a while, he stands again and walks to the biggest piece of chalkboard and he starts writing.

 

 _His body is twisted because he’s been captured for ages. A terrifying monster, locked away by a king a long time ago. The current king keeps him locked up because he’s scared of his strength. But there’s a young prince who’s not afraid. He’s curious and he goes to the dragon and sees that he’s just a prisoner, sees the pain and wisdom in his eyes. The prince frees the dragon. When the dragon is free from his chains he lets out a giant flame, setting the whole castle on fire. The king and all his knights burn and finally, the prince is free, just like the dragon_.

 

Jared hefts the heavy chalkboard up on the railing and watches as Jensen reads.

 

This is the moment he looks forward to and dreads at the same time, ever since the first time Jensen demanded a story before he showed his art. When he’s done reading, Jensen holds up the canvas he painted.

 

It’s a painting bursting with color. In the middle is a golden dragon, its long body held in a swirl, wings spread, and a giant red-green flame shooting from its mouth. On the ground in front of him is the figure of a boy with shoulder length brown hair, looking up to the dragon. In the background, the grey, crumpled ruins of a city are consumed by the flames.

 

Jared has stopped being surprised by the similarities in their interpretations of the stars. There’s just something about Jensen and their meetings on the rooftops that he can't explain. This is just a part of it.

 

Jared looks back at Jensen, and for a moment, there's nothing but naked longing in Jensen’s eyes. Then he blinks and his expression smoothes out again. Jared tries for a smile, supportive and encouraging, but he’s not sure how successful he is. He just wants to wrap Jensen in his arms, feel Jensen’s breath on his skin, his heartbeat under Jared’s hands. He wants tangible proof of Jensen’s existence, wants the proof that Jensen is not just a hunger dream in a world that threatens to starve Jared into madness.

 

But he won’t ever touch him. On top of that tower, living the life of a government son, Jensen is just as much a prisoner as Jared is in his world. And while Jared’s life might be more dangerous, he can leave his tower whenever he wants.

 

_I have to go back. Thanks for the story._

 

Jared hates these words with a burning passion.

 

 _Thanks for the picture. Sleep well_ , he writes back.

 

Jensen pauses, then he smiles. _I’ll sleep well. I’ll dream of the boy who freed the dragon._

 

Quickly, before Jensen leaves, Jared scribbles down a question: _Tomorrow?_

 

This time, Jensen doesn’t write; he nods and smiles that small and happy smile. Jared treasures it with all his heart.

 

Jared feels himself smile back. It’s rare that Jensen gets two nights in a row. He doesn’t like to talk about why he can’t come upstairs every night, but it has something to do with why he can’t leave the tower either.

 

Some day, Jared is going to find out. As soon as he can figure out a way into the government district. Until then, he’ll keep making up stories about the constellations he and Jensen look up at as they dream of their freedom.

  


**Author's Note:**

> The original fill on tumblr [here](http://ashtray-thief.tumblr.com/post/153003369404/how-about-jared-and-jensen-stargazing).


End file.
